


Collar

by Fire_Bear



Series: FrUK Week 2016 [7]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Collars, Comedy, Day 7, Dimension Travel, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, FrUK Week 2016, M/M, Soulmates, nekomimi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-26 03:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7558009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Bear/pseuds/Fire_Bear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like every other morning, Arthur left his flat to go to work. His day immediately took a turn for the weird when he finds a collar on the floor with a single name: Francis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collar

**Author's Note:**

> And it gets even weirder. This… became more of a comedy than I intended. Also more complicated with a sort of conspiracy and…
> 
> I have no idea how to do drabbles, do I?
> 
> (Also, I take all these prompts to heart way too much. ^^”)

When Arthur left his flat that morning, he immediately stood on something and had to use the door-frame to stop himself falling. Startled, he glanced down and found himself staring at what appeared to be a dog's collar. He picked it up and inspected it. The leather looked like marbled chocolate with a shining, silver tag. It was shaped like a heart and, when he looked at it for details, he found it was blank save for a name.

 _Francis_.

 _Ah_ , thought Arthur, _it must belong to a cat. No-one would call a dog_ Francis.

Looking up and down the hall, he could see no sign of cats, dogs or any other animals the collar would fit. In fact, it was silent, the bulbs unlit and bathing the corridor in shadow. Returning his gaze to the collar, Arthur wondered how it had fallen off – he could see no tears or rips or even bite marks. It was as if the collar had undone itself and slipped from the animal's neck.

Shrugging, Arthur shoved the collar into his Doctor Who satchel (intending to deal with it later) and locked his front door. Then he continued on his way. At least, he attempted to; when he rounded the corner to reach the lift, he found his path blocked by...

Well, it was a hole in the air, really. A big, black, jagged oval. Every few seconds, it lazily pulsed, growing a little bigger as it did so. Arthur stared at it. Just what on Earth was he looking at? Tightening his grip on the strap of his bag, he reasoned that it might not be something from Earth. Then again, he _had_ been binge-watching sci-fi shows recently. It occurred to him that he may actually be the equivalent of a character from the first few minutes of a Doctor Who episode. Hopefully, he wouldn't actually die, because, despite his misgivings, Arthur cautiously – curiously – approached the hole.

Upon reaching it, Arthur squeezed by its edge and the wall. On the other side, as he had thought, there was a black hole, this one slightly smoother as if to signify it was the back – or maybe the front. Arthur reached out his hand to touch it, to see what it was made of. The hole pulsed as he did so and something like a tendril of blackness – no, it was multi-coloured but dark and pure white all at the same time – darted out of it. Arthur's hand touched it – cold, warm, smooth, rough, everything at once which caused him to briefly shudder – and the tendril coiled around his finger.

And kept going.

Something began to tug Arthur towards the hole. Alarmed, Arthur cried out and dug his heels in, trying to pull himself free. “Help!” he shouted, wondering if anyone would reach him in time, if he was really going to die or be mutilated or-

With a sudden, tremendous force, Arthur was pulled through ice and fire and nothing and through to whatever lay on the other side.

* * *

 

He found himself on a rooftop. At least, it looked like a rooftop: there was a little block with a door on it at the opposite end of the space he was in. There was no-one around, only a fat pigeon, pecking at the concrete in the hope of food. Confused as to why he had ended up there, Arthur turned to see if he could get back home as easily as he'd gotten there.

There was no portal in sight.

“Shit,” said Arthur, not entirely sure he knew what he should do now. Could he get to the ground and figure out where he was? Looking out over the landscape, Arthur would guess he had moved from his place in London to the top of one of the skyscrapers in New York or somewhere similar. Somehow, it was morning here as well – maybe it took time to teleport.

Whatever the mechanics of the movement, Arthur decided that the first step would definitely be getting off the roof. So he made his way to the door and, after figuring out which way it opened, pulled at it. To his relief, the door opened soundlessly, revealing a flight of steps. Arthur made his way down them and soon found himself on a landing in a dingy hallway. Rows of doors told him that either he was in a block of flats or he was in a cheap office building. Or, maybe, they didn't bother to clean or maintain the upper floors and that was why it looked so dingy.

Making his way around the building, he soon found the lifts – which were out of order. “Fuck,” he sighed, wishing he wasn't at the top. He had just turned to the door opposite the lifts when he heard a ding from behind him. Surprised, he turned around (maybe they hadn't bothered to remove the signs) and watched the lift doors open.

Suddenly there was yelling and guns and people and Arthur could only throw his arms into the air. Instinctively, he stepped back and there was more yelling and he froze, unsure as to what was going on. Then, suddenly, the people stopped. Someone said “What the hell?” and they began to lower their guns.

“U-Um,” Arthur whispered, taking in the situation. There were five people blocking him from leaving, standing in a semi-circle. They were dressed like the police in full armour, the kind he had seen them use in raids like he'd seen on TV. All of their helmets shielded their faces from view and the guns were big, probably semi-automatics, though Arthur knew very little about guns. Aside from their black outfits, though, Arthur wasn't sure they _were_ police as the word wasn't printed on any of the uniforms.

“He's not from here,” said someone, sounding surprised, their voice soft. Arthur guessed his accent was American – then again, it might have been Canadian.

“Wha-? I, um... There was...” Arthur wasn't sure he would be believed or why guns were involved.

“It is okay,” said someone with a different accent, something Arthur couldn't quite place. “Do not panic.” The person talking turned to his companions and added, “He must have been a bystander who walked through the gate by accident.”

“Gate?” said Arthur, slowly lowering his arms: they were beginning to ache. “You mean the... portal?”

“Oui,” said the same man. “Did it close behind you?”

“Well, it's not there any more,” Arthur told him. “Am I in America? Is-? What's going on?”

There was a pause as the people seemed to look at each other. Then the man (who Arthur deduced was French) sighed and reached up. He unstrapped his helmet and removed it to reveal quite a handsome face, stubble visible along his jaw. His blond hair was tied back into a ponytail which Arthur found made him look all the more attractive. Blue eyes watched him carefully, as if he might panic. And well he should for, atop his head, were a second pair of ears. They looked like cat ears, the same colour as his hair.

Arthur stared, unsure as to what he was looking at. Why were they wearing those electronic ear things under their helmets? Was this part of their mission? Or...?

“Are they... Are they real?” he whispered, eyes widening as the man nodded. “But- I- What?”

Sighing, the man scratched at his neck. “I think it's best we find somewhere for you to sit down...”

* * *

 

They ended up inside one of the unused flats. Thankfully, they had the key so Arthur assumed they weren't breaking and entering. Then again, with the way things were going, that would be just his luck.

In a living room devoid of personality, the men sat down, everyone taking off their helmets. Two of them put on glasses, both blond and blue-eyed. He would have assumed that all the people in this... place... were blond and blue-eyed if it weren't for the brown-haired and dark-eyed Asian man and the man with white hair and reddish eyes. One of the blonds and the white-haired guy grinned at him, the other bespectacled one smiled politely and the Asian had such a neutral expression that it rather scared Arthur. The smiling wasn't helping either so he was rather grateful that the man who seemed to be in charge was pacing in front of them – though that could have been because of the lack of seating arrangements.

“All right...” The leader paused and turned to Arthur. “Sorry, what is your name?” he asked.

“Arthur Kirkland,” he replied.

“Right. Monsieur Kirkland, I am Agent Bonnefoy and these are my associates: Agent Beilschmidt, Agent Honda, Agent Williams and Agent Jones. We are part of an organisation set up by the government to investigate these gates – the portal you travelled through.”

“There's more than one?” Arthur asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Bonnefoy admitted. “We are still not sure how they started but we _do_ know someone made them. They have been avoiding capture by going through worlds. Recently, we learnt that they have to return to this world using the same gate. We have never been able to locate them before they return to set up a trap – until now. I chased a suspect through one before he... well. The point is, I had to return, leaving him in what I assume was your world. And then...”

“I came through and it closed.” Arthur took a moment to process what was going on. He had been going to his job in the local library which was closing down in a month. Then there had been a hole in the world and now he was in a different one with... He glanced up at their ears again, all of them blending seamlessly with their hair, and quickly looked away. It was probably rude to ask what he wanted so he searched for another question. “Does that mean your suspect is trapped there?”

Agent Honda spoke up. “We believe he has created a portable device for creating these gates. He can easily open up one in your world and return, presumably in a different location. We will not find him here.”

Silence fell. All of the group looked frustrated and Arthur wondered if it was really a bad thing that someone had found a way to transverse dimensions. “What happens when he opens the, er, 'gates'?”

“All sorts of things can get in and out of the two universes,” Williams explained. “Some of them aren't all that nice. And we're not sure what will happen if he opens too many.”

“So you really need to find him?” Arthur asked, glancing at the clearly frustrated Bonnefoy. “And I made you miss that chance.”

“Unless the dude can open more than one gate between two dimensions at a time. Then he'd already have come back and this whole operation's a bust,” Jones said. “Besides, that's not what's bugging _him_.” He nodded towards the leader. “Fran here lost something in the other world and he's heartbroken about it.”

“Tais-toi!” snapped Bonnefoy, expression turning darker.

“'Fran'?” inquired Arthur, frowning again.

“It's his name,” said Beilschmidt. “Francis Bonnefoy.”

The name triggered a memory and Arthur gave a cry of surprise. “Wait a minute!” Quickly, he turned to his bag where he had set it beside the armchair. Opening it, he soon found the collar he had discovered and pulled it out. “Is this your-?” Arthur stopped when he realised what he was implying. “Ah. God, I'm sorry. I shouldn't assume it's yours just because you look like a cat- Wait... Er. Do you know what cats are? Or-?”

“Where did you find that?” Francis interjected, looking pale.

“Huh? Oh. On the floor in the hall of my building. It was at my front door – I stood on it when I was trying to leave.” Looking down at it, Arthur quickly inspected it for damage. “It looks okay, though.” But, when he looked back up, Arthur still hadn't managed to placate the man... cat... person. Instead, Francis looked even more shocked.

Suddenly, Jones and Beilschmidt burst into laughter. “Oh, my God, dude! This is priceless!” Jones shouted.

“T-Tais...” murmured Francis, grabbing the back of Honda's chair to steady himself.

“I can't believe this guy's your soulmate!” Beilschmidt added. “He's not even a Neko! He's a- What do you call your species?”

“Um,” said Arthur, slowly. “Human.”

“He's a human, haha!”

“What's-? Can someone, _please_ , tell me what the hell is going on?” Arthur demanded, starting to get angry.

“That's a soulmate collar,” Williams explained, barely audible over the noise of Jones and Beilschmidt's laughter. “We all have one with our names on it. When we come into the vicinity of our soulmate, it falls off. The name is so we can find each other. Sometimes it only has your first name. Other times, there's a surname. We don't fully understand how they work or why that's the case, though.”

“Seems like a bit of a hassle to me,” Arthur said, shrugging. Then he thought over what they had said and froze. “W-Wait a minute. Are you trying to-? But we don't have- Soulmates aren't a-” Arthur broke off and, embarrassed, waved his hands as if to wave it away, the collar jingling as he did so. Instantly, the entire team stiffened, their secondary ears swivelling towards the sound. Arthur froze as well, unsure what to do in the sudden, strange situation.

“You should put that down,” said Francis, gesturing at the arm of the chair. Arthur did as he was told, trying to stop it from making a noise. “What were you saying? 'Soulmates aren't'...?”

“They're not... really... real,” Arthur mumbled, glancing away when he realised how stupid he sounded. “I-I mean, they don't exist in my world. Well, some people believe and hope in them but it doesn't _happen_. Surely you just got close to your suspect as they were running and it fell off then-”

“Non. I had gotten close to him beforehand – it should have fallen off in this world if that was the case.”

“But... it can't be me,” protested Arthur. “I mean, I have to go back to my world, right? The universe can't be so cruel as to separate you from your soulmate. Something must have happened or gone wrong- Oh!” cried Arthur as he thought of a better explanation. “Maybe when you came through to my world, it fell off because you were outside of yours. The laws of the world changed and it fell off.”

“That does not explain why it fell off – surely it should have stayed on?” Francis pointed out.

Arthur opened his mouth to reply but closed it when he realised that Francis was right. “I...” he managed.

“See?” said Francis, a smile brightening his face all of a sudden. It made him look even more attractive, a thought which Arthur had to dismiss as he didn't really want to have a 'soulmate'. Especially one who had pointed a gun at him a few minutes before. His pondering on his contradictory thoughts distracted him enough that, when someone touched his arm, Arthur jolted upright, looking up at the man in question. Somehow, Francis had closed the gap without making a noise – ah, right. Cat.

“What...?” he began before Francis interrupted him by sitting on the arm of the chair – far too close for his liking.

“You're my soulmate,” Francis said, looking so happy that Arthur felt guilty for not being able to reciprocate the smile. “I'm so happy I found you.” Francis reached out to cup Arthur's cheek and that's when Arthur decided to put a stop to whatever was about to happen.

Leaping to his feet, Arthur backed away, hands in front of him as if to shield himself from the people in the room. “I can't- This...” Taking a deep breath, Arthur tried to order his thoughts so he could speak. “I don't know how this soulmate thing works exactly but I can tell you that I don't exactly... feel... anything for you. And, even if I did, we definitely can't get close to each other. You're here to fix those gate things and when you do... Well, I'll need to go home, won't I?”

A silence fell on the group. Slowly, Francis stood and carefully, as if he was approaching a cornered animal, moved towards Arthur. The human didn't move, watching him, tense and willing him not to touch him. Unfortunately for Arthur, Francis ignored his lack of telepathy and soon had him enveloped in a hug. Arthur had expected it to feel romantic but it was more platonic, comforting, as if Francis thought he would cry.

“I am sorry,” said Francis. “I know that you are in shock right now. You have been given a lot of information – it is a miracle you have not fainted. And I know that you do not believe in soulmates. But I am sure you are mine, Monsieur Kirkland. I will not push you into anything – you have time to think things over. To take it all in. We will look after you, do not worry.”

Silently, Arthur nodded, agreeing with Francis. His arms shook with both the need to hug Francis back and his determination to not touch him. He didn't know quite how he felt in that moment but he did know that Francis had understood him completely – and that was somehow uplifting and reassuring at the same time.

**Author's Note:**

> Can you guess who the bad guy is? Cause I’ve made a decision and I think that situation would be well wicked, mate! (And also angst-inducing but hush.)


End file.
